We’ve certainly talked about what a disappointment the end of the Oregon Ducks’ 2022 basketball season was, with early-season tournament expectations fizzling down to a second-round loss in the NIT tournament. The final 10 games of the regular season saw seven losses, and because of an illness that was deemed mysterious for the better part of a couple of weeks, the Ducks’ leading scorer — Will Richardson — was nowhere to be found down the stretch.
We don’t need to look into that any further, though. Now it is time to look ahead. After the season officially came to an end with a loss to Texas A&M last weekend, head coach Dana Altman talked about what he thought needed to change with the team, and how they could get better going forward.
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“We’re gonna have to make some adjustments to our staff, figure out our players who want to be there, the transfer portal,” Altman said. “We’ll probably have some guys go and some guys stay, and that’s their right. That’s their opportunity. I only want guys that want to be at Oregon and are fully invested in our program.”
While we know for sure that a couple of players — Jacob Young and Eric Williams Jr. — will be moving on, there’s still a chance that a lot of players come back. Richardson has another year of eligibility if he wants it, and other players like N’Faly Dante, Quincy Guerrier, and De’Vion Harmon could significantly benefit from another year before trying their hand and the professional level.
As the offseason settles, we will surely see some players enter names in the transfer portal — we already saw it earlier this week with Isaac Johnson looking for a new team — so trying to project a lineup or rotation for the 2022-23 season is a bit of a crap-shoot.
That’s not going to stop us from taking a stab at it, though. Here’s how we project the Oregon Ducks’ basketball team to look like next season in a way-too-early projection.